Choose a literary character who experienced a great personal struggle or challenge. Briefly describe this challenge and how the character overcame it. Why did this have an impact on you? Are there ways in which you identify with this character? The literary character I chose to write about is Anya Borzakovskaya From the graphic novel Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol. Anya’s personal struggle is trying to fit into a society that does not want to accept her. Anya is a Russian immigrant who moved to the states when she was a child. She was faced with massive amounts of bullying until she was able to assimilate. She now holds on to the fear that she is standing out by being different and that if someone treats her badly that that is the reason why.…show more content… Her nervous tendencies around people she liked or wanted to be friends with mirrors how I act around people I’m not comfortable with. Stuttering, avoiding eye contact, and making sarcastic remarks all to avoid any of the conversational focus going to me and who I am as a person. This is a defense mechanism That Anya and I share, my reasoning for it being that I do not feel like anything I actually have to say is substantive, and for Anya her use of it is to hide. These points all lead back to that fear of not fitting in and being judged by those who exist around you. I can also identify with Anya’s strong almost one sided emotions. To put it simply I can relate to how stubborn Anya can be. I also identify with the body issues Anya has, like most girls have at one point or another. But Anya’s body issues are with her weight and figure while mine are about scars, and my eyes. I can also identify with Anya in ways that are negative to others, for example Anya gets into a fight with her only friend and refuses to believe she was the wrong one out, even if she was. I also get stuck in this stubborn, grudge holding mindset, because forgiving or apologizing are very difficult things to do. Overall Anya is a self-conscious, stubborn, sarcastic, depressed teenager who struggles to bury her past so that she can feel as though she
